Railway-track structure.



No. 653,345. Patented July I7, |900. H. osHEA.

RAILWAY TRACK STRUCTURE.

(Application led Noy. 7, 1899.)

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NrrED STATES PATENT OEPrcE.

HENRY ost-IEA, 0E JoHNs'rowN, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSreNoR To THE LoRAIN STEEL coMPANY, or PENNSYLVANIA.

RAILWAY-TRACK STRUCTUR.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 653,845,l dated J' uly 17, 1900.

Application tiled November 7, 1899. Serial No. 736,134. (No model.)

T0 @ZZ whom it may concernhj Be it known that I, HENRY OSHEA, of Johnstown, in the county of Cambria and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Railway-Track Structures, ofwvhieh the following is a full, clear, and exact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, which form a part of this specification.

My invention has relation to certain new and useful improvements in railway-track structures-such as frogs, curve crossings, straight crossings, and the like-in which two wheel-grooves or angeways meet or intersect. Owing to the great wear to which structures of this kind are subjected at the points where said grooves meet or intersect, it has been customary in the best grade of such work to provide the structures with a remov` able plate made of some more durable material than the remainder of the structure and which might be taken out and replaced when necessary. Heretofore these plates,which are made of an expensive grade of material, when so worn as to make it necessary to replace them have been entirely useless for further service and are thrown aside.

The object of the present invention is to provide a plate of this character. which is reversible, so that when worn upon one side it may be removed and inverted and its life and period of usefulness be thereby doubled.v I attain this object bya plate constructed and arranged in the manner hereinafter described,

reference being had to the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure l is a plan View of a railway frog o curve crossing embodying my invention. Fig. 2 is a detail view of the center plate removed. Fig. 8 is a section on the line 3 3 of Fig. l. Fig. 4 is a detail view showing a different fastening device.

The letterA designates the track structure, which may in general be of any suit-able construction, with a pocket B to receive the hardcned center plate or member C. The structure shown is formed by casting togethershort rail sect-ions or ends placed in suitable relation to each other, the pocket B being cored in the cast metal Whichunites said rail sections or ends. The plate O is formed with corresponding wheel-grooves in both its 'upper and lower faces, so that when placed into either side of its grooves it will properly aline with the railsections. The plate may be secured in place in any suitable manner. Avery convenient way of securing it is by means of Wedges D, inserted through a recess at one side of the pocket and driven in opposite directions between the plate and the wall of the structure, the said seat for said wedges being partly in the plate and partly in the wall of the structure. After the wedges have been seated some retaining material G, such as melted zinc, is poured over the same and around the plate. This material can be readily cut away and the wedges unseated to remove the plate when it is desiredl to reverse it. The seats into which the wedges are driven are preferably formed with tapered converging Walls, as indicated in Fig. l. The grooves upon the under side of the plate lill up with Zinc or other retaining material used., as shown in Fig. 3, thus holding the plate securely in position against lateral movement should the side wedges work loose. This material can be readily cut out of the grooves when the plate is reversed.

In order to permit the plate to be reversed,

`it must be symmetrical in shape with respect to its longitudinal axis. In the drawings I have shown a hexagonal plate fitting a pocket of similar form; but it may obviously be rectangular or any other desired form.

W' hen the meeting or intersecting grooves are at different angles, the grooves upon the two sides will not be directly over each other, but will be so disposed that those on the under side will properly aline when the plate is reversed; This is indicated by the dotted lines in Fig. 2, which indicate the position of the grooves upon the under side of the plate.

In Fig. 4 I have shown a modified form of fastening in which the reversible plate is formed with a longitudinal beveled rib P at the edge and the wall of the structure has a longitudinal recess P of corresponding form. The rib P forms a bearing in both positions of the plate for the Wedge D.

It is obvious that the invention maybe applied to various track structu res and is therefore not limited to the particular form and IOO arrangement which I have herein shown and described.

Having thus described my invention,what I claim, and desire to protect by Letters Patent, is-

1. A removable plate for railway track structures, formed of hardened metal, and having Wheel-grooves or tlangeways formed in both its upper and lower faces, whereby it may be reversed and used either side up, substantially as described.

2. In a railway-track structure, the combination with the body portion of the structure having a recess or pocket formed therein, of a hardened plate removably seated in said recess or pocket, and formed with Wheelgrooves in both upper and lower faces Whereby said plate may be reversed, substantially as described.

3. In a railway-track structure, the combination With a body portion having a pocket or recess therein, of a hardened plate rem ovably secured in said pocket or recess and formed with wheel-grooves in both upper and lower faces, said plate being symmetrical with respect to its longitudinal axis, said plate also having at an edge thereof and equidistant from its upper and lower faces a seat for a fastening device, substantially as described.

4. In a railway-track structure, the combination with a body portion having a pocket or recess therein, of a hardened plate seated in said pocket or recess and formed with wheel-grooves in both upper and lower faces arranged to aline with the wheelbearing members of the structure, and soft retaining material between said plate and the Walls of said pocket or recess, said material also entering the grooves in the under side of the plate, said plate and the walls of said pocket or recess having seats for securing-wedges, the seat of the plate being equidistant from its upper and lower faces.

5. In a railway-track structure, the combination with the body portion of the structure formed with a pocket or recess, of the symmetrical plate removably seated in said pocket or recess, and having Wheel grooves and guards at both its upper and lower surface, the grooves on the under side of said plate also forming seats for a retaining material.

6. In a railway-track structure, the combination with the body portion formed with a pocket having a recess in its side wall, of a. reversible plate seatedin the said pocket, and having at its edge a wedge-seat opposite the said recess and equidistant from the upper and lower surfaces of the plate,

7. In a railway-track structure, the combination with the body of the structure having a pocket therein, formed with a recess in its side wall, of a plate reversibly seated in said pocket and having an edge projection extending into the said recess, said projection being equidistant from the upper and lower surfaces of the said plate.

In testimony whereof I have affixed my signature in presence of two witnesses.

HENRY OSHEA.

Witnesses:

MYRTLE E. SHARPE, H. W. SMITH. 

